Shahidul Islam Rubel, Netrokona

The heavy rains of the past one week and the floods caused by the mountain landslides coming down from the Meghalaya state of India have caused an estimated loss of Tk 571 crore in Netrakona.

Netrakona Water Development Board Executive Engineer Md. Sarwar Jahan said that the heavy rains of the last one week and the mountain landslides coming down from the upstream. In 27 unions of Durgapur, Kalmakanda, Purbadhala, Netrokona Sadar and Barhatta upazilas along the Indian border, there has been extensive damage to crops, houses and roads.

Deputy Director of Netrokona Agricultural Extension Directorate, agriculturist Mohammad Nuruzzaman said that 24,600 people were killed in 5 upazilas of Netrokona district due to heavy rains and landslides. 67 hectares of plantations and 177 hectares of vegetables have been severely damaged.

The amount of financial loss is approximately 3 hundred 13 crore taka. Md. Rabiul Islam, Executive Engineer of Netrokona Local Government Engineering Department (LGED), said that 1,600 638 km of pitched roads are out of 5,953 km of roads under Netrokona LGED. The rest are CC, RCC, Macadam, carpeting and unpaved roads. 200 kilometers of rural roads in Netrakona have been damaged in the recent floods. The estimated financial loss is about Tk 250 crore.

Netrakona District Satsya Officer Md. Shahjahan Kabir said that 1,730 fish in Netrakona's ponds were swept away by the flood. The financial value of which is approximately 7 crore 89 lakh 80 thousand taka.Banani Biswas, Deputy Commissioner of Netrakona said, I have instructed all the departments in the coordination meeting to go to the ground and make a picture of the actual damage caused by the flood.

Once the actual picture is in hand, how we will rehabilitate the affected farmers and fishermen and quickly repair the affected area to make it suitable for normal traffic, an application will be made to the higher authorities for allocation of funds. It will be implemented as soon as necessary allocation is received.